Women's health
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The only untreatable subgroup of female infertility is absolute uterine factor infertility (AUFI), which is due to congenital or surgical absence of a uterus or presence of a nonfunctional uterus. The solitary option for a woman with AUFI to become a biological mother today is through a gestational surrogate mother, a procedure that is prohibited in Sweden and large parts of the world. Uterus transplantation (UTx) is a potential future treatment of AUFI. ⋯ Here, we summarize the primate UTx experiments that have paved the way for the human UTx cases, which are described and analyzed in more detail. We also estimate how many women of fertile age are affected by AUFI and describe the causes. The ethics around UTx is complex and is also addressed.
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Hypertensive disorders are the most common medical complication of pregnancy, with an incidence of 5-10%, and a common cause of maternal mortality in the USA. Incidence of pre-eclampsia has increased by 25% in the past two decades. ⋯ The increased understanding of the pathophysiology of hypertension in pregnancy, as well as advances in medical therapy to minimize risks of fetal toxicity and teratogenicity, will improve our ability to prevent and treat hypertension in pregnancy. Fetal programming and fetal origins of adult disease theories extrapolate the benefit of such therapy to future generations.